Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Laira (Plym Estuary) near Saltram Park, with Clarke’s Battery Beyond

1814

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Devon Rivers, No.2 Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 110 × 178 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D09717
Turner Bequest CXXXIII 41

Catalogue entry

Here Turner looks south-west across the Laira (Plym Estuary) from the neighbourhood of Boringdon Park. There is a wider prospect, where this part of the view is largely obscured by trees in the foreground, on folio 39 recto (D09715), under which the subject is discussed. The fortification on the summit near the centre is Clarke’s Battery,1 as also seen in Turner’s oil sketch of 1813 (Tate D09211; Turner Bequest CXXX E).2
The drawing on folio 40 recto (D09716) is effectively a continuation to the left.
1
See Sam Smiles, ‘The Devonshire Oil Sketches of 1813’, Turner Studies, vol.9, no.1, Summer 1989, p.14.
2
Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984, p.133 no.217, pl.218 (colour).
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
July 2014

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